Never in modern history has a U.S. president attempted to win reelection with a campaign operation based beyond the Potomac.

But that's what President Barack Obama is apparently proposing to do. It's a daring move that strategists hope will enable him to recapture some of his 2008 magic.

Obama's top advisers have concluded that potential drawbacks to locating the headquarters in his home base of Chicago are outweighed by the benefits they anticipate from a break with precedent. And with Republican contenders already circling, there's a sense of urgency toward beginning to set up the reelection effort.

The campaign is expected to take shape in the next few months, and insiders are operating under the assumption that it will do so from the Windy City. Sources with knowledge of the campaign planning said that while no decision has been made, a Chicago location is a near certainty.

"Reelection campaigns are typically based in Washington because that puts the leadership closer to where[the candidate] lives," said Jamal Simmons, a Democratic consultant and veteran of multiple presidential campaigns. "In modern presidential history, this is kind of revolutionary."

David Axelrod, now a senior White House adviser, is scheduled to leave the Obama administration on Feb. 1. He's expected to take a few weeks off — and move home to Chicago — before getting the reelection planning underway.

Meanwhile, Obama's 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, is scheduled to take his place in the White House early next month, while current Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina is scheduled to rejoin Axelrod on the campaign team.

Why worry about all of this with 20-plus months to go before the 2012 election? It's never too early to start fundraising, for one, especially when you're expected to raise nearly $1 billion. Nor is there such a thing as too soon to begin reinvigorating the national grassroots network that famously powered Obama in 2008. And as Republican contenders become less shy about declaring their intentions, Obama will need a means of responding to their attacks that doesn't distract from his official presidential activities.

"Because he's the president of the United States, he's not out there running the way he was before when he was the U.S. senator, where you have to think about everybody in the field every second of the day," Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said Sunday on "Meet the Press." She added, "That doesn't mean that, at some point, he's not going to get out there and launch a campaign, but the most important thing that he can do for the American people is think of them every single day and let them guide his actions."

Avoiding distractions is one of the major benefits of basing the campaign outside D.C., said Simmons, who supports the idea.

"For people who have been in the White House the past two years, it's probably a good idea to get outside the presidential bubble," Simmons said. "Being in Chicago is a good way to do that. It's just real life."

Simmons joined former Vice President Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign after its relatively late relocation from D.C. to Nashville. He credited Gore's strong showing in that election to the move.

"Frankly, a lot of people didn't go and it really culled the people who weren't committed," he said. The move also kept the staff grounded in real-world concerns. "When we got time off in Nashville, we went to honky-tonk bars and sat next to people who were talking about the Tennessee Titans, not politics," he said.

Phil Singer, campaign spokesman for former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, agreed that what staffers do in their time off can be an important factor. In Chicago, campaign staffers are less likely to mingle with Washington political reporters, cutting down on leaks, he said.

"It makes it a lot harder for loose lips to sink ships," said Singer. Looking back on 2008, the fact that Clinton's campaign was based in Arlington, Virginia, and Obama's in Chicago was a major advantage for the president, he said.

The challenge for Obama’s team will be to keep members of the the administration and the campaign staff on the same page, particularly if the president is forced to respond to a crisis or other unforeseen developments, said Gerald Rafshoon, former White House communications director under Carter.

“A campaign is a full-time job and running a White House is a full-time job, and the people have to be compatible with each other because events mainly determine reelection,” said Rafshoon, who worked on Carter’s initial campaign out of Atlanta and his reelection campaign in Washington.

A nonincumbent's campaign is aimed at constructing an image for a new figure on the national stage and, as such, can be largely mapped out in advance, he said. But an incumbent "is going to be reelected depending upon his performance as president and how people perceive his performance as president," Rafshoon said. That means a lot less stumping on the trail and more agile responses to the events of the day.

The bifurcation of the campaign and White House locales creates the potential for communication difficulties, but that's less of a concern in the Internet age. And advocates point to Plouffe and Axelrod's long-time working relationship as evidence that the two-headed beast will be of one mind.

Mark McKinnon, a GOP consultant who worked on both George W. Bush presidential campaigns, said working out of Chicago "will be very challenging, but worth it if Team Obama can pull it off." He added, "You just get a lot more perspective and oxygen to your brain when you're outside the Beltway. And it's harder for the lobbyists and insiders to infiltrate the operation."

Among Democratic staffers, there is some griping about the prospect of relocating for the coming campaign. But proponents of the decision say anyone who's not ready to make the move is insufficiently committed to the all-encompassing experience of a presidential effort and ought to stay home.

The most obvious advantage of being outside Washington is the symbolism of so-called Beltway outsiderdom. But whether that's available to a sitting president -- the ultimate Beltway insider -- is debatable.

“The location of your campaign office can send a message, and the president wants to send a message that he still considers himself more of a Chicagoan than a Washingtonian,” said an aide to a likely Republican 2012 presidential candidate.

Democratic consultant Karen Finney said that's exactly the message Obama will be sending.

“Chicago is where the president is from. That’s his home, and I think it’s important to stay grounded in that," she said. "It’s a good way to remind people that’s where he comes from and that his roots are from the middle of the country.”